In Recognition of Skill: The Growth of Qualification Payments, 1960-1980

Abstract

The initial development of qualification payments was related to efforts by craft unions to overcome the decline in margins for skill. During the 1970s, the emphasis widened to include a campaign to use qualification payments to evade wage controls. As a result, some non-trades groups pressed successfully for qualification payments or their equivalents to restore lost relativity with tradesmen. Their successes, most notably at Tasman and Kinleith, worked against the initial craft union strategy of using such payments to restore skill margins.